Pinching queens to control swarming?

[reedyfork]

I'm thinking of a scenario where a beekeeper is not interested in (or able to) expand their apiary, has no interest in selling bees, and therefore does not use splitting colonies as a means to control swarming.

Would it be possible to find a colony in swarm prep mode, locate and pinch the current queen, reduce the number of swarm cells down to a couple nicest ones, and in turn prevent the colony from swarming? You could avoid making a split, replace the queen with her own genetics, and cause a brood-break to help with early mite control...

Am I missing any drawbacks to doing this?

[Jacobs]

It seems like a high risk proposition to me, especially until weather is generally warm enough for good mating flights. I haven't read/researched the issue, but given the already high risk proposition of hive reproduction by swarming, I don't know the success rate of re-queening by very early swarming hives.

I would still go with a safer method that does require some more equipment. I have taken the queen and a few frames of brood, some food frames and open comb and put that in a nuc. I then shook more of the bees from the original hive into the nuc. I did this before the bees made swarm cells with the hope and general result that the bees in the original hive made an emergency queen and did not go into swarm mode. I would think it would also work if you had swarm cells and knocked them down to a couple of nice ones. If the original hive is successful at re-queening, you could always pinch the nuc queen and recombine the bees. If the original hive failed to re-queen, you could then combine the nuc and queen back into the original hive. Once either the weather is consistently better or commercial queens become available, your scenario could be attempted with a lot less risk.

I really would like to hear what other folks think.

[Wally]

They went into swarm mode because of hive conditions. ""overcrowding, ETC."" Without reducing the swarming conditions, they will just build more cells and swarm. Better to remove the queen and make a nuc. Advertise and put a few bucks in your pocket. Nucs sell well and I don't know anyone who doesn't want a little more money, other than those wanting a lot more. LOL

[reedyfork]

OK, you have both talked me out of it... Glad I asked! I do have a bunch of 5-frame equipment laying around, so it makes perfect sense to keep the queen in reserve rather than just pinching her, and pulling some brood frames and bees out of the original hive to relieve congestion.

Unlike last spring, I'm determined to not lose colonies this year to them "swarming to death"! I think I lost 5 to them swarming and then sending out multiple afterswarms until they found themselves queenless (and I didn't realize it until it was too late). Having these queens set aside in small Nucs will be a great insurance policy.

[hazmatinferno]

I am learning from your "conversation" here. Thanks for all the information. Since you all discussed making splits, I wanted to ask if you think I made a mistake. I made two splits from two different colonies. I ensured they had eggs/larvae/capped brood and food stores (nectar/honey and pollen). My brood frames had lots of bees on them. However, I left the queen in the existing colony. My hope was that these "new" colonies will grow a new queen. I was planning on leaving these two new colonies alone for one month before looking at them again.

Did I mess up? Sounds like it would have been better to put the existing queen in the split and let the "mother colony" grow the queen. (?) THOUGHTS?

[Wally]

Doing it that way will work most times. Removing the queen to the nuc will work much better.If the hive is in swarm mode, they will swarm anyway if you do not remove her.

[hazmatinferno]

Thank you for the reply Wally!